The People’s Bank of China has added 20 new operators to its e-CNY network this year through two rounds of expansion, according to CoinDesk. Eight of those additions came this week. CoinDesk said the moves have tripled the size of China’s digital yuan network in 2026. The update points to continued expansion of the central bank digital currency framework, with more banks being brought into the system over the course of the year. The report did not name the newly added institutions in the summary provided, but it did specify the total number of new operators added this year and the count added this week. The expansion was described as taking place across two separate rounds.

Real-world asset activity and stablecoin policy both moved this week. As of Aug. 14, 2026, on-chain RWA market capitalization reached $38.29 billion, while the number of holders climbed to 1.7935 million, according to RWA.xyz data cited by PANews. In stablecoins, total market value slipped slightly to $297.91 billion, but transfer volume and monthly active addresses both fell, pointing to a quieter on-chain period even as holder counts kept growing. On the policy side, the People’s Bank of China said in its 15th Five-Year reform and development plan that it will steadily develop the digital yuan. In Europe, officials decided to revise the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, or MiCA, with a focus on the market access rules that have left non-EU stablecoin issuers such as Tether outside the bloc. The U.K. advanced the second phase of its digital pound lab and also began work on a regulatory framework for tokenized gold. At the project level, Anchorpoint, the Hong Kong licensed stablecoin issuer backed by Standard Chartered, HKT and Animoca Brands, launched the first phase of issuance and institutional use for HKDAP. HashKey Exchange and OSL joined as recognized distributors. Elsewhere, NYSE, Itaú Unibanco, Coinbase, LG CNS, Miden, Dow Protocol and Rain each disclosed new tokenization, stablecoin or funding developments during the week.

A dense batch of overnight developments across crypto and AI put institutional treasury moves, exchange remediation, Ethereum roadmap changes, and U.S. regulatory timing in focus. Strategy disclosed share sales, BTC disposals, and a larger dollar reserve, while BitMine and Sharplink updated major ETH accumulation plans. Bitget published a compensation plan tied to abnormal price moves in TUT, LOBSTER, and BICO perpetual contracts, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it will review a proposed customized issuance framework for certain crypto-related investment contracts on Aug. 14. Elsewhere, Vitalik Buterin’s latest Ethereum roadmap comparison elevated quantum resistance, privacy, and AI-assisted verification, large wallets continued moving BTC and ETH, and several AI infrastructure financings pointed to growing use of debt markets to fund chip purchases and compute buildouts.

This edition of the RWA Weekly centers on the faster rollout of real-world asset tokenization. China’s central bank highlighted the need to improve cross-border infrastructure for the digital yuan, while traditional finance firms including BlackRock and Wells Fargo rolled out tokenized money market fund and deposit services. On the stablecoin side, Tether, Visa, Mastercard, Cloudflare, and Japan’s Lawson are pushing use cases across real estate, cross-border payments, micropayments for AI agents, and physical retail. The roundup also notes that regulators in multiple countries are refining rules for tokenized assets. Together, these developments point to parallel progress in financial product tokenization, payment rails, and real-world commercial adoption.

Guangdong’s commerce department has released a draft plan for the Guangdong Free Trade Zone, titled the "15th Five-Year" development plan (2026-2030). The draft calls for expanding the cross-border digital yuan payment pilot and keeps the public consultation period open until Sept. 5. It also seeks to broaden digital yuan use cases inside the free trade zone, support offshore finance and cross-border wealth management, and allow financial institutions to develop cross-border supply chain finance products. The draft further encourages international financial institutions to set up regional headquarters in the zone. The proposal comes after China and Singapore completed their first cross-border digital yuan payment through the upgraded CBETS platform, according to the report.

Guangdong has put forward a package of measures to expand digital yuan application scenarios and enlarge cross-border payment pilots. The plan covers Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect and digital yuan cross-border payments, according to a draft released for public consultation. The measures appear in the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (draft for comments), as reported by Jinshi. The draft calls for upgrading fintech regulatory pilots and broadening digital yuan use cases. It supports offshore finance, green finance and other cross-border financial innovation businesses. Financial institutions operating in the zone would be encouraged to develop cross-border supply chain finance and intellectual property pledge financing products, and market entities would be guided to create composite financial products. The document also sets out plans to deepen pilots for cross-border credit asset transfers and multi-currency integrated accounts, with the aim of achieving mutual recognition and interoperability for cross-border financial products on a larger scale. All the proposals are now open for public comment.

According to a report cited by ChainCatcher from Jin10, the People’s Bank of China held its work conference for the second half of 2026 and stressed the need to steadily deepen financial reform and opening-up. The meeting said the central bank will actively carry out central bank currency swap arrangements and local-currency settlement cooperation, support the participation of more overseas institutions in panda bond issuance, advance the construction of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System for the renminbi, and improve infrastructure for cross-border use of the digital yuan. The readout centered on cross-border settlement, offshore participation, and payments infrastructure.

Jiangsu added 7 trillion yuan in digital yuan transaction value in the first half of the year, with total transaction scale representing more than 80% of the national total, according to Tang Zhixin, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China Jiangsu branch. Speaking at a third-quarter 2026 press briefing, Tang said the province’s digital yuan transaction amount grew 215% year over year during the period. He also said cross-border digital yuan transactions in Jiangsu reached 70.3 billion yuan, nearly three times the full-year total recorded in 2025. The province had 81.323 million cumulative digital yuan wallets, 12.312 million monthly active wallets, and 4.127 million merchants accepting the payment method. The figures offer a snapshot of digital yuan adoption in one of China’s largest regional markets, covering transaction growth, cross-border usage, wallet activity and merchant acceptance.